Anime North 2017 Part 2: metronome

After Hollow Mellow finished up, it was time for metronome to make their Canadian debut. One unfortunate aspect of the previous band’s set was that the front rows were filled with people filming the concert on their phones, which took some energy out of the show. When the event organizers came onstage to introduce metronome, they asked that everyone give them as much energy as possible and put their phones away. Surprisingly, most of the people in the audience did just that.

When CONTINUE, the intro track from metronome’s album of the same name, began to play, there was hardly a phone in sight. The crowd’s eyes were all on the stage as electronic beeps and a robotic voice introduced the members, starting with the band’s support drummer, HIROSHI from CASCADE. Next came “Talbo-2”, bassist Riu, “Talbo-1”, guitarist Fukusuke and “Voicecoder” Sharaku.

Once everyone was in position, Sharaku greeted the crowd with his usual cry of “metronome da!” and the band immediately launched into their comeback single, Kairisei douitsujinbutsu. Riu bounced around and tapped out notes on the keyboard while Fukusuke poked at buttons and teased the theremin to create the futuristic sounds in the middle of the track, with the cloudy white-blue contact in his left eye giving his face a spooky air under the lights.

Like Iruma from Hollow Mellow, Sharaku used a cue-card during the MC. While he struggled to sound out the sentences he had prepared, his sincere effort charmed the crowd. Well-aware that the audience was more familiar with anime than his band's music, Sharaku yelled out “My name is Naruto – hairstyle like Dragonball!”, calling attention to the Super Saiyan-esque spikes at the back of his bright yellow hair. However, he soon started falling back on Japanese, and he seemed shocked when many of the audience members understood and answered back. He then complained with mock-exasperation that his hard work practicing English was going to waste.

Riu got the crowd clapping along before the upbeat track Tofu Mental, but it was the older song MATSURI that really made the more withdrawn audience members let loose. Fukusuke took over the MC, introducing the audience to the festival dance. Sharaku and Riu both danced along as Fukusuke sang out a rhythm for everyone to follow. When most of the audience mastered it, Fukusuke beamed with pride and shouted "Very good!" However, when the dancing slowly petered out, Fukusuke glared over at his bandmates and barked that they weren’t told to stop. They started dancing again, casting fearful looks at him, which drew laughter from the crowd.

In JaME's recent interview with metronome, they stated they had the utmost confidence in their new album CONTINUE, and that was incredibly clear to see from their set. Every song prior to MATSURI was from the new release, and the next track was as well. By the end of the show, they had performed every song on the album.

Sharaku announced that the classic song φD-SANSKRIT would be their last. “Circle!” he yelled to explain how to dance to it but, when only a few fans seemed to understand, he simply blurted out “I love you!” and started singing. The crowd jumped and pumped their fists along to the track and Fukusuke and Riu struck silly poses as they lipsynched along to the robotic voiceover. Sharaku eventually managed to get his message across by spinning around in circles himself during the chorus, and the band left the stage accompanied by loud cheers.

Encore calls began immediately, and metronome quickly returned to play the lead track from CONTINUE, Tsuyokute NEW GAME. The fast-paced and aggressive song gave each member a chance to show off, with Riu and Fukusuke both playing solos that earned enthusiastic cheers. Then, Sharaku led everyone in a big jump and metronome left the stage for the final time. Fans quickly began lining up at the side of the venue for merchandise and autographs.

All in all, Hollow Mellow and metronome made an unusual pairing because their sounds were so different. However, both bands received a very warm reception, and if the lines for merchandise were any indication, they both definitely left the convention with many new fans.

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